Brief Passages - Twilight Zone (Escape Clause)

Admittedly I was looking forward to “The Lonely”, realizing that before it I had to sit through the insufferable character of Walter Bedeker (David Wayne, who does his job, because I couldn’t wait to see his “departure”, as the Devil (Thomas Gomez, given a much better episode with the underrated “Dust”) describes it in their agreed “soul contract”) in “Escape Clause”. Bedeker is a hypochondriac with psychosomatic “delusional ailments” whose wife (Virginia Christine, either considered a saint for what she puts up with or a questionable fool for tolerating his neverending shit) is always at his beck and call. If I had a criticism about Serling it is his often puzzling treatments of women in The Twilight Zone as Christine’s Ethel is always treated by Walter as a doormat, a victim of constant ridicule or derision. I just wanted her so badly to walk out on him and enjoy a life absent his bellyaching, insults, and criticism. But she follows him up on the roof of their apartment complex and plummets to her death because he insists on a leap for “hopeful kicks” because of boredom. Yes, he gets his wish to have eternal life unless he requests an end from Gomez’ devil, under the alias of Cadwallader, but despite that Walter is still unwilling to be content. He tries to get some thrills from leaping in front of a train, swallowing ammonia mixed with other bathroom liquids, or throwing himself in front of a bus, but nothing will do. So he hopes claiming to kill his wife, the electric chair might do the trick. But life in prison, thanks to his overzealous lawyer, changes his mind on the whole immortality wish. I have to admit that this episode is one of my least favorites of the first season. When I rank them at when I finish the first season, I figure this will be close to the bottom. I just can’t stand Walter, which is the point, but Gomez is a gift as the cheerful, jolly devil, adding some spirit to this episode…Walter is such a cipher, that spending twenty two minutes with him is a bit much.

--Brian

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So just for 2020, along with my other ongoing projects for the horror genre, I thought it would be fun to build towards my [now annual] self-created 4^th of July Twilight Zone Marathon with a “brief passages” series for the first season. I thought it would be a neat sort of 2020 episodic footprint and the point of the “brief passages” part is to try and limit myself to just a “mini-review” five-to-six line paragraph for each episode of the Twilight Zone (and some Universal Monster films as well) in the first season. My marathon for Independence Day will not be as extensive as it was in 2019…ten episodes, five from the third season and five from the fifth. Because I have written big reviews for many of the first season episodes in the past, this “brief passages” format won’t be as difficult while those certain few that might not have gotten a more elaborate, detailed treatment, it should be quite a challenge to limit myself.